GROWING MUSIC WITH DON by Bengt Berger

When I first planned my overview of Don Cherry's Swedish albums more than a year ago (which was then delayed for several reasons), I thought it needed some more depth than I could possibly give it myself. I figured I needed an eyewitness report from someone close to Cherry during his Swedish years, or better yet: someone who actually played with him. I couldn't possibly think of anyone better than drummer par excellence Bengt "Beche" Berger. He happily agreed to do it, and I sent him a set of questions. I thought it would be a simple little Q & A – he indeed generously answered all my questions, but in the shape of what very well can be called an essay on his years with Don Cherry, with many and valuable peeks into the creative process. (I only translated it.) A massive THANK YOU to Bengt Berger who graciously took the time to provide us with this!

Don Cherry iwith Bitter Funeral Beer Band in 1982

I had of course heard Ornette's quartet already, but the first time I saw Don live was with Sonny Rollins's quartet at the Stockholm Concert House in January 1964. A house next door was on fire, so there was smoke in the hall and they did a fantastic gig. I still listen to the tape I made of the radio broadcast every now and then. [Jazz presenter] Olle Helander aired just about every show at the Concert House. It was a fantastic concert, Don didn't play a lot, mostly tossed in a phrase here and there och joined in with the free handling of themes. Rollins played continuously and was marvellous. Henry Grimes on bass and Billy Higgins on drums. Listen to the show! Don later told me that after the concert, Moki told him to come and look at her paintings in the next room but there she turned out the light, and that's how they met.

Next I heard Don's European quintet with J.F. Jenny-Clarke, Aldo Romani, Gato Barbieri and Karl Berger at the Golden Circle [a legendary jazz venue in Stockholm] a few years later. Moki was up front in the audience. That too was fantastic but for some reason, I only saw them one night. I wonder why – when Charles Lloyd's first quartet with Keith [Jarrett], Jack [DeJohnette] and Cecil McBee played at the Circle I saw them every night for two weeks.

At Embassy at Sturegatan [in Stockholm] I heard the trio with Johnny Dyani and Okay Temiz. When Don played a little phrase on a wooden block and sang ”kukorokoko” and paused, I responded from the audience. But it might have been after we met in Uppsala, because Okay had his ordinary drum kit there and that was before he got his giant darbuka drum kit. 

Don and Beche in The Dome 1971

I had started playing with Arbete & Fritid and we had one of our earliest gigs at Norrlands Nation in Uppsala. We shared the bill with Don Cherry who was there with Bernt Rosengren's quartet with Tommy Koverhult and Leif Wennerström. Tommy Koverhult was in the back room before the gig and changed springs and pads on his sax, and when Don heard I play the tabla he told me to sit in with them. I was just back from India, but for some purist reason, I never used them in Arbete & Fritid. And finding tablas in Uppsala on such short notice was impossible, so I never sat in with them that night. But both bands played some fine music that night.

We often played in Stockholm around that time, and it sometimes happened that you could hear Don play along in the middle of a song. He sneaked up on stage behind us, played along for a while and then disappeared. It happened several times with Arbete & Fritid but also when I played with for instance Handgjort, maybe at Gärdet.

But then came The Dome at the Museum of Modern Art. The Cherry family lived in an old bunkhouse next to The Dome, and they spent whole days in The Dome. Moki sewed and painted and Don played with those who came there, and a lot of people did. When I was there, he told me to bring the tablas so I did and we played there every day after that. Moki played the tanpura and Don sang, played the trumpet, flute, a little gamelan or whatever was at hand. A grand piano and Okay's drums were there too, so we used these a lot too.

Don and Beche in The Dome 1971

I can't remember exactly when they bought the schoolhouse in Tågarp, but it must have been around the time when they had just moved there that he asked me to come along. We drove down there, Don, me and Gittan [Jönsson] that would become my girlfriend a few years later. She did a very nice little painting on a log of wood showing how we filled up gas late in the evening on our way down. I think it's still there.

Always when in Tågarp, I stayed in a little room in the attic, it was very cozy. An old schoolhouse is a very harmonious building with its square classrooms at each end and the teacher's residence in-between. They fired up a stove in each schoolroom, one was Moki's atelier and the other was the music room where we also ate and socialized.

Don, Eagle-Eye and the old schoolhouse in Tågarp

Moki had painted the piano in beautiful bright colours and next to it was [Don's son] ”Eagle-Eye's drum kit”. When it was us only, we played piano and drums, lots of Ornette themes that Don played over and over again while I played along in full blast. It NEVER happened that he told me what to play. I always played exactly what I wanted (and I've tried doing so ever since). I could try to catch the melody and learn it, play along with it, but I could also play against it and around it. At first he would play the same thematic turnover forever, and then he played some kind of rhythmic harmonic accompaniment based upon it. My understanding of Ornette's harmolodics is that you construct a chord over an optional number of notes of the melody, and how many notes you choose defines how large the chord will be. You decide for yourself when you create a new chord from a different chunk of the melody. The chords will be different for each melodic section. Anyway, that's how I perceive it. It would have been interesting hearing Ornette himself play over a piano comp like that. Oh, by the way, sometimes Don could give me a sign that he wanted me to play a fast comp on the cymbal, it added brilliance. He gave a cymbal comp sign with his hand. But that was the only instruction he ever gave me.

Or we could play tablas, wooden blocks or some other smaller percussion instruments, and flutes, trumpet, vocals or whatever. Then we were in some kind of Asian territory. Tibetan music also figured. I showed him ragas, scales, and we made up melodies/songs/ways of playing together. Later on they could show up during concerts or at workshops. Don loved to learn and when I gave him his first tabla lessons, I was taught a huge lesson myself. I gave him the first lesson, and then we sat playing together but not like doing the homework – we played music! We could play it over and over again but not as an excercise in order to go on to something new after that – this was the actual creating of music! I had never understood that before, and only occasionally experienced it later.

Beche, Don, Eagle-Eye and Christer Bothén in 1974

My second great piece of learning was the way we treated ”the reportoire” in concert. Case in point: We had a gig at [jazz club] ArtDur, later Nefertiti, in Gothenburg. Bernt Rosengren and I came down from Stockholm, Don from Tågarp, while Christer Bothén already lived in Gothenburg. Don't think we had ever played with that line-up before. We get there, unpack our instruments and start rehearsing on stage. Don plays just like he does when it's just me and him in Tågarp. He picks up a theme and plays it round and round while the others try to learn the tune. All of a sudden he changes to a different theme or a different instrument. Perhaps he sits down at his harmonium. I switch to mridangam, Christer to a donsu'nguni, Bernt maybe to a taragot, and something new takes shape. So it changes; in the middle of a solo Don might switch to a completely different song and you just have to follow along. Either you know the theme, or you try to learn it while playing. All of the time we're making music fully focused. After having kept going for an hour or two, they let the audience in and we keep going without a break or without starting over. After another hour, we might stop or take a break only to start in a while again.

This method of not necessarily playing a song from beginning to end but to change it altogether when you feel like it is something I have tried to practice with all bands I've played with, but with the difference I want everyone in the band to have that same possibility. I think it probably worked best with Berger Knutsson Spering, maybe three people are realistically the best, but it of course depends on who you're playing with. In our case we also allowed ourselves to pick up a song in any tempo or in any style at all, but also refuse to change if someone didn't want to. It can go far but it can also go to hell and that's of course exciting.

* * * 

The photos are taken by unknown photographers and come from countryandeastern.se, all used by kind permission of Bengt Berger.

DON CHERRY – The Swedish albums 1967-1977

It's really quite strange that it took me 13 years of progg blogging before Don Cherry got his own post here. He's emblematic to what I think is the true spirit of the blog, a place where all kinds of music meet as long as it has a mind of its own. And perhaps that's why I overlooked his inclusion for so long: he's so huge and obvious that maybe I thought he was here already. Well, he actually is if only in small portions as he appears on albums by Bengt Berger and Bitter Funeral Beer Band.

Born in Oklahoma City in 1936 with music running in the family, he made his mark on jazz already in the late 1950s when teaming up with Ornette Coleman for a long series of albums including milestone releases ”The Shape Of Jazz To Come” and ”Free Jazz”. He also performed with John Coltrane, Archie Shepp, George Russell, Albert Ayler, Charlie Haden – he passed gracefully through jazz history and jazz history passed smoothly through him and his trumpet. He even played percussion on Allen Ginsburg's album of William Blake interpretations, collaborated with Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki and Terry Riley, and co-wrote the score for Alejandro Jodorowsky's surrealist movie ”The Holy Mountain”. There's also a famous 1976 recording of Lou Reed live at The Roxy in Los Angeles with Don Cherry sitting in. He often did that – I know several Swedish musicians of different kinds who can tell stories of how they suddenly heard a beautiful sound on stage and when they turned around, there was Don Cherry with his pocket trumpet joining in, uninvited but welcome.

He spent time in Europe in general and Scandinavia in particular. There are for instance a set of great recordings from the Montmartre jazz club in Copenhagen 1966 released on ESP Disk in the late 00s. But it's his recordings with Swedish musicians that stand out from his European years. Cherry's playing was usually great no matter who he performed with, but it was here in Sweden he really found a home both musically and physically. He moved permanently to Sweden in the late 60s, bought a defunct schoolhouse i Tågarp in the beautiful Österlen region of the southern county of Skåne with his wife Monica ”Moki” Cherry. Moki was a textile designer; her works were as colourful and striking as her husband's music and graced several of Don's album covers. They had several children involved in music, with Eagle-Eye Cherry being the best known. Don's stepdaughter Neneh Cherry has also had an interesting and multifaceted career in music.

The house in Tågarp became something of a centre for friends and musicians, and the place where Don Cherry's Organic Music Society shaped and developed, a concept that to all intents and purposes was the forerunner to what would later be known as 'world music', only freer and more open.

Outpourings of Don Cherry's Swedish years weren't that many to begin with, but there's been an upsurge of archival recordings from this period, especially after Cherry's untimely death at 58 in 1995. I have included every album recorded in Sweden and/or with Swedish musicians between 1967 and 1977, except for those where only Moki Cherry appears usually on tamboura. That's not to dismiss her efforts but because I consider her and Don a unit. Also, it shouldn't surprise anyone that I consider Maffy Falay and Okay Temiz Swedish musicians too even though they techncially were Turks. There are also recordings featuring Swedes prior to 1967, such as ”Psycology” [sic!] with domestic free jazz pioneer Bengt ”Frippe” Nordström and released on his own Bird Notes label in 1963 (an album that interestingly enough also features drummer Bosse Skoglund on one track). A George Russell live document from Beethoven Hall in Stuttgart 1965 has both Don Cherry and Bertil Lövgren on trumpets, but that too is excluded due to the early date.

Movement Incorporated (Anagram, 2005; rec. 1967)
Instrumental
International relevance: ***

Don Cherry used to hold workshops and music classes at ABF, the labour movement's education centre, and this disc was recorded at one of their locales in July 1967. Old friend from years back Frippe Nordström appears along with Leif Wennerström and Okay Temiz on drums, Maffy Falay on trumpet and flute, Tommy Koverhult on tenor sax and Bernt Rosengren on tenor sax and flute, plus American trombonist Brian Trentham. I'm not sure how official this release actually is. Anagram had a few interesting discs out (including a great one by Gilbert Holmström). The sound quality is nevertheles a good mono recording and once it gathers momeutum, the recording is an excellent example of spontaneous collective composing. ”Suite 3” and ”Surprise Surprise” particularly point to the future with their clear Oriental/Arabic influence. Not easy to find these days – I suppose it only had a small run and the label is now definct, but it's well worth looking for.

 

Brotherhood Suite (Flash Music, 1997; rec. 1968-1971)

released as Don Cherry with Bernt Rosengren Group

Instrumental

International relevance: ***

Recorded at various Stockholm locations during the course of four years with roughly the same group as on ”Movement Incorporated”, this is one of my favourite Don Cherry releases. Not only am I a fan of Bernt Rosengren in general, but him in combination with Cherry is usually explosive matter. The sound quality varies due to the different sources, but it's a varied and vivid selection. Some continues along the lines of ”Movement Incorporated” with free jamming while other tracks are composed and focused. If you don't mind the fidelity fluctuations (nothing sounds bad) and the stylistic span, this is a wonderful compilation of an excellent composite of musicians.

 

Live In Stockholm (Caprice, 2013; rec. 1968/1971)

Instrumental

International relevance: ***

Much like a latecoming expansion pack to the Flash Music disc above, these recordings originate from 1968 and 1971, with the half-hour long ”Another Dome Session” being recorded the same night as ”In A Geodetic Dome” on ”Brotherhood Suite”. The remainder of this release is dedicated to the two-part ”ABF Suite” with the second portion being based on Turkish folk melodies brought in by Maffy Falay. Again a collaboration between Cherry and Rosengren's group, but it's a bit different than the two albums above. Here you can sense the direction in which the trumpeter was heading in the future, getting closer to a more dissolved, genre bending style, the musical crossroad of the entire world. As a study of his development it's certainly rewarding, but it doesn't quite have the same impact as other Rosengren/Cherry documents.

 

The Summer House Sessions (Blank Forms Editions, 2021; rec. 1968)

Instrumental

International relevance: ***

This is an absolutely fantastic album that perfectly melds Cherry's free jazz power with his search for a universal expression! It was recorded in the summer home of Göran Freese, sound engineer and musician (appearing on, for instance, G.L.Unit's ”Orangutang”), and mixes members from the ”Live In Stockholm” band with musicians from his international ensemble New York Total Music Company. The idea was to have them jam and rehearse freely without any intention of making an album, but thankfully the tapes rolled and the recordings were finally presented to the world in 2021. The undemanding setting made for some stunning performances that rank among the finest ever from Cherry and his cohort. The music flows freely between traditions, and Turkish hand drummer Bülent Ateş really adds an extra dimension. Essential!

 

Eternal Rhythm (MPS, 1969; rec. 1968)

Instrumental

International relevance: ***

Another international grouping comprising American, German, Norweigan and French musicians, plus Swedes Bernt Rosengren and Eje Thelin, recorded live at the Berlin Jazz Festival in November 1968. It's a long suite notable for utilizing a large number of flutes and an array of Gamelan percussion. A giant step in Cherry's career, and the first album to properly predict the 'organic music' concept. With names like Albert Mangelsdorff and Sonny Sharrock it's clear from the start that the music is grounded in free jazz, but when adding the unusual (for jazz) timbres of the metal instruments, it becomes something else, something wider in scope and emotion. The thing is that is doesn't sound at all contrived suggesting that Don Cherry had a very clear idea worked out in his head what he wanted to achieve by using them. AllMusic's Brian Olewnick called ”Eternal Rhythm” ”required listening” and I am the first to agree.

 

Live Ankara (Sonet, 1978; rec.1969)

Instrumental

International relevance: **

Having already acquainted Maffy Falay and Okay Temiz, Don Cherry was no stranger to Turkish music, and in late 1969 he got to play at the U.S. Embassy in Ankara with Temiz, saxophonist Irfan Sümer and bassist Selçuk Sun. Despite relying heavily on Turkish traditional material, it's a fairly straightforward set revealing strong traces of Cherry's past with Ornette Coleman (especially with two Ornette compositions in the set). It's not very exciting, and the dull sound also hampers the experience a bit.

 

Music For A Turkish Theatre (Caz Plak, 2024; rec. 1970)

released as Don Cherry/Okay Temiz

Instrumental, wordless vocals

International relevance: **

Another Turkish recording, this time with an interesting backstory. The music was commissioned for a play written by James Baldwin who was living in Turkey off and on between 1961 and 1971 having fled racism and homophobia in the U.S., and produced by theatre owner Engin Cezzar. Dealing with gay relationships in an Istanbul prison, the play was controversial and banned by the Turkish government in after 30,000 people had already seen in it in two months. The music has its moments, but it's by no means essential. It's value lies mainly in the story behind it. Released physically on vinyl only, it came with four different covers, all in limited editions and now sold out.

 

Blue Lake (BYG, 1974; rec. 1971)

Instrumental, wordless vocals, other languages

International relevance: **'

A trio date from Paris, 1971 with Cherry, Temiz and bassist Johnny Dyani. I don't like it at all. First of all, I don't think Temiz and Dyani is a good team (see thisreview), and second of all I don't like Don Cherry's vocals and there's a lot of that on ”Blue Lake”. The playing is messy and sometimes simply directionless, it just goes on forever without getting anywhere. The album was originally released only in Japan 1974 but has for no good reason been reissued several times since.

 

Orient (BYG, 1973; rec. 1971)

Instrumental, wordless vocals, other languages

International relevance: ***

A sister album to ”Blue Lake” released the year before, with half of the double album having more tracks from the same Cherry/Dyani/Temiz date, meaning they also sound about the same. The two albums were reissued together on CD in 2003.

 

Organic Music Society (Caprice, 1973; rec. 1971-1972)

Instrumental, English vocals, other languages, wordless vocals

International relevance: ***

The album that most of all epitomizes Don Cherry's 'organic music' theories. It's intriguing and annoying, messy and flourishing, intense and flaccid all at once. There are field recordings and studio takes, focused performances and half-baked ideas in a raffle of sound and it's sometimes hard to make sense of it. That is the album's weakness but also its strength, and what you think of it probably very much depends on your current mood. I personally would have preferred the double album slimmed down to a single disc, keeping side 2 and 3 (despite Cherry's vocals) and perhaps keep the rather captivating ”North Brazilian Ceremonial Hymn” as an opening track. It would have narrowed the scope of the organic music idiom and by that missed the point, but it would have made a more cohesive album.

A nice list of performers though: Tommy Koverhult, Christer Bothén, dynamic duo Temiz & Falay, and – most importantly – Bengt Berger. Engineered by Göran Freese, the summer house owner who initiated the majestic 1968 recordings.

 

Organic Music Theatre: Festival de Jazz de Chateauvallon 1972 

 (Blank Forms Editions, 2021, rec. 1972)

released as Don Cherry's New Researches featuring Nana Vasconcelos
Instrumental, English vocals, other languages, wordless vocals
International relevance: ***

The organic music brought to the stage for the very first time. With Christer Bothén and various tag along friends from Sweden plus Brazilian percussionist and berimbau player Nana Vasconcelos performing as Don Cherry's New Researches in the Southern France. Much more focused than ”Organic Music Society” although Cherry's vocals are still a major snag.

 

Eternal Now (Sonet, 1974)

Instrumental, other languages

International relevance: ***

With the organic music concept being worked on for a couple of years, the essence of it had finally crystallized on 1974's ”Eternal Now”. A mellow and spiritually gripping album that stands head and shoulders above any previous attempts in the style. Maybe because not every Tom, Dick and Harry creaks and clangs and babble their way into the music – with a personnel of only five including Cherry himself, they can move in the same direction without any distraction from unnecessary outsiders. Especially as they're such a tight unit to begin with, with Cherry, Berger, Bothén and Rosengren at the core with Agneta Arnström only adding Tibetan bells to one track and ngoni (a West African string instrument) to another. ”Eternal Now” (a beautiful title!) oozes with midnight magic, it's like incense for the ears and enlightenment for the soul. Without a doubt one of Cherry's best 70s albums and one of Moki's best album cover works to boot.

 

Modern Art (Mellotronen, 2014; rec. 1977)

Instrumental, other languages

International relevance: ***

A live recording from The Museum Of Modern Art in Stockholm in early 1977. Per Tjernberg from Archimedes Badkar finally makes an appearance on a Don Cherry album – it seems just so appropriate. More unexpectedly, so does Jojje Wadenius who sounds a bit lost to begin with when on electric guitar but blends in better once he switches to the acoustic. (He returns to the electric towards the end and seem a bit more comfortable then.) It's a set heavy on Indian influences so it's surprising not seeing Bengt Berger here. I think he might have been a great staibilizer, because although the performance is rather pleasant, it's a bit trying and uncertain.

However, like I said earlier, Berger's and Cherry's collaboration continued later with Cherry being a vital part of the excellent Bitter Funeral Beer Band. A collaboration that extended beyond the time frame of the Swedish Progg Blog.

There are of course numerous of other Cherry albums without any Swedish connections, some of them less good but some of them among the best jazz music ever put to disc. Don Cherry was a true master, and as a Swede I feel honoured that he chose to live here for so long and also produce some of the finest music of his career while doing so. He was not only a real visionary, he was also a true genius.

Movement Incorporated no links found
Brotherhood Suite full album
Live In Stockholm full album playlsit 
The Summer House Sessions full album playlist       
Eternal Rhythm full album playlist   
Live Ankara full album  
Music For A Turkish Theatre full album playlist (Bandcamp)
Orient / Blue Lake full album playlist
Organic Music Society full album playlist  
Organic Music Theatre full album playlist (Bandcamp) 
Eternal Now full album
Modern Art full album playlist     

There's also an hour-long Don Cherry documentary called "Det är inte min musik" (="it's not my music") made  by Swedish Televison in 1978 that gives some further insight into his life in Sweden. You can watch it here. 

MWENDO DAWA – Basic Line (Sonet, 1979) / Free Lines (Dragon, 1981)

 

Basic Line (Sonet, 1979) 

Instrumental
International relevance: **

The first of many albums from these Gothenburg jazzers who carved out a fusion jazz niche of their own with Susanna Lindeborg's mini moog. However, it hadn't yet found its natural place in the music this early on, and it sounds a bit like it was added when the others had done their parts, like an afterthought. Mwendo Dawa was to a fair degree tenor saxophonist Ove Johansson's band, but it was Lindeborg's keyboards that gave them their special character. ”Basic Line” sounds as if they're still searching for their unique sound, like they still are getting to know each other musically. It took some time still before they got there. Recorded in 1978.

 

Free Lines (Dragon, 1981)

Instrumental, wordless vocals

International relevance: **

Two years and a couple of albums later, Mwendo Dawa had lost guitarist Ulf Wakenius which proved beneficial. ”Free Lines” is a much tighter work signified by a greater collective self-assurance. Ove Johansson plays with great ease here occasionally touching on free jazz, but the most striking leap forward comes from drummer David Sundby who's very powerful on ”Free Lines” giving the music a the much needed push that the debut lacked. Even the album's more lyrical moments are tenser and denser. And while Susanna Lindeborg may not have a leading role here, her keyboards slip much more smoothly into the music. 

from "Basic Line":
Important Level
Basic Line

from "Free Lines"
Maria

MONGEZI FEZA & BERNT ROSENGREN QUARTET – Free Jam (Ayler, 2004; rec. 1972)

 

Instrumental

International relevance: ***

This is a double punch knockout! Recorded around the same time as trumpeter Mongezi Feza's albums with Johnny Dyani and Okay Temiz, this is miles above them all. (It should be said that Temiz is present here as well, but in a much more appropriate context.) The secret weapon here is Bernt Rosengren's quartet who really goes for it, and his band is a much better match to Feza.

Double CD ”Free Jam” was recorded during two shows in mid and late November 1972, and the title explains it all: this is collective improvisations. A dangerous game if you can't find the flow, but these five gentlemen sure do. They touch on multiple jazz styles, or more like referencing them, because it's all free jazz in the best sense of the word. Powerful, energetic, symbiotic, osmotic. It's so exhilarating when it happens and this is an exhilarating release.

The sound quality isn't top notch, it's a slightly distant audience recording from a somewhat echoey venue, but the force of the music still comes through with crystalline focus. If you're used to listening to free jazz it shouldn't be much of a problem, as many obscure free jazz albums aren't any hi-fi experiences anyway. And this is one of the finest examples of the style recorded and released in Sweden.

Selective album playlist (Bandcamp)

OPPOSITE CORNER / PALLE DANIELSSON -6- – Club Jazz 5 (SR, 1971)

 

 Instrumental

International relevance: ***

The ”Club Jazz” series was a series of nine volumes of jazz recordings made for Swedish Radio between 1970 and 1974, a bit like a jazz equivalent of the three ”Tonkraft” double LPs released in the early 80s. The albums were usually split between two artists, one per side, and not all couplings made sense. There's for instance one album with Arbete & Fritid on one side and trad jazzers Kustbandet on the other. ”Club Jazz 5” has a better match, with a very early Opposite Corner recording and one by a rare sixpiece line-up led by bassist Palle Danielsson.

This session with Opposite Corner is five years earlier than their proper debut album ”Jazz i Sverige '76” and a bit different. It's not full on free jazz wild but they let loose a bit more here than they did later on. And it's much better! The Arabic scales in opening track ”Ayazin” is very tasteful, and Gunnar Lindgren delivers some fine tenor sax soloing in ”Blacklouti Strikes Back”. Last track from them is ”Tibetanskt urindop” and is probably as close Opposite Corner ever got to Arbete & Fritid. A very good session, well worth hearing even if you're not into their later work.

Turn the record over and you find four tracks from Palle Danielsson's band. This is where it gets really interesting. Featured here is an all star cast of Lennart Åberg, Bobo Stenson, Jon Christensen, Bengt Berger and Roland Keijser along with Danielsson himself! A highly vivid session with Berger in particular going bonkers on the drums – it's among the most ferocious drumming I've heard from him, and it's interesting to note that this was recorded in the same year as Fickteatern's ”Allt växer till det hejdas” which also has some mad Berger playing. But the ensemble effort is great all through, and I really wish there were more recordings from this particular lot.

So with two unique and splendid sessions, this is one for the ages.

Full album

GÁBOR SZABÓ – The Swedish albums

Gábor Szabó was a Hungarian born American guitarist whose best known albums are ”Bacchanal”, ”Dreams” both from 1968, and unfortunately also unbelievably cheesy ”Jazz Raga” from 1967. If you want to hear stunningly bad sitar playing, please choose ”Jazz Raga”, one of legendary jazz label Impulse's greatest brainslips. ”Bacchanal” and ”Dreams” however are two lovely examples of pop jazz with psychedelic tinges. Two albums of quality cool kitsch.

 

Small World (Four Leaf Clover, 1972)

Instrumental

International relevance: **

Recorded in two days in August 1972 in Stockholm, this is the first Szabó album to feature Swedish musicians, this time Schaffer and Nils-Erik Svensson of Svenska Löd AB!, Stefan Brolund, Sture Nordin, and Berndt Egerbladh. It's one of Szabó's best 70s albums, very close to his 60s work, with his characteristic guitar sound set to a groove-laiden background. Szabó recorded the Oriental sounding ”Mizrab” several times, but this version is the best of them all, with a great, funky ensemble performance. (A mizrab is the special kind of plectrum you put on your index finger when you play sitar.) ”Small World” is an often overlooked album which deserves more attention. Several different cover variations exist.

 

Belsta River (Four Leaf Clover, 1979)

Instrumental

International relevance: **

Another two-day session in Sweden, this time in January 1978 (but not released until the following year). Only Schaffer is left from ”Small World”, with Wlodek Gulgowski, Malando Gassama, Peter Sundell (from De Gladas Kapell), and Finnish/Swedish Pekka Pohjola joining him. Nowhere near as good as ”Small World”, this is muzak fusion, decorative but dull. The Latin affected ”24 Carat” has some life in it, but it's still not very good. (The album was also released in Japan as ”24 Carat”.)

”Belsta River” was to be one of Szabó's last albums. He died in 1982 while visiting his birth town Budapest only 45 years old from liver and kidney failure caused by drug abuse.

Small World full album playlist
Belsta River full album playlist

LENNART ÅBERG – Partial Solar Eclipse (Japo, 1977)

 

Instrumental

International relevance: *

If you're into fusion jazz, this one looks promising at a first glance, with several EGBA members and Lennart Åberg himself from Rena Rama, Häxmjölk and Oriental Wind. ”Partial Solar Eclipse” is a suite in six parts, and ”IV” is OK, moving in freer areas. But most of it is contemporary jazz in a progressive big band mode with only very light fusion touches. And a bit too heavy on the big band part. Not exciting at all. As a matter of fact, it's pretty damn boring.

Full album playlist

BERNT ROSENGREN – Notes From Underground (Harvest, 1974)

 

Instrumental
International relevance: ***

Tenorist Bernt Rosengren is one of the major Swedish jazz musicians, and if you're at all into Swedish jazz, you neither should nor could pass him by. He played with so many, both domestically and internationally, from Sevda to Krzysztof Komeda, from Nature to Don Cherry, from later era Eldkvarn to George Russell. Not to mention his great albums as a leader of which ”Notes From Underground” stands out as his major opus. Yes, it is a jazz album, but it's so sprawling and free-spirited, spanning so many expressions that you soon just forget about genres and simply think of it as music delivered with an amazing joy of playing. And just look at the line-up: Maffy Falay, Okay Temiz, Salih Baysal, Gunnar Bergsten, Bengt Berger, Tommy Koverhult, Torbjörn Hultcrantz, Bobo Stenson, Björn Alke, Leif Wennerström, Bertil Strandberg and of course Bernt Rosengren himself. With such a heavy lot you just know that this can't go wrong. And of course it doesn't.

There's the bluesy lyricism of the short version of ”Markitta Blues”, there's the Pharoah Sanders permeated spirituality of ”Iana Has Been Surprised In The Night”, there's the 'free bop' of ”Gerda” and ”Splash”, there's ”Some Changes V” – almost a miniature throwback to Rosengren's participation with G.L. Unit. Not to mention the Turkish portions from the holy trinity of Falay/Temiz/Baysal that breaks through like sudden dreams from another world once on each of the two discs. ”Notes From Underground” is a double album, but never one to feel overstretched and presumptuous – itself an achievement. The whole album is so well composed, so sensitively balanced that it almost surprises you when it's already over.

I sometimes use the word 'monolithic' and I'm going to use it once again. This album is monolithic. And once you've got it, don't stop there – go on to 1971's splendid ”Fly Me To The Sun” and the two volumes of ”Live In Stockholm” recorded in 1974 and 1975 respectively – volume 1 is particularly powerful. And the continue.

Full album playlist minus first track
"Theme From Piano Concerto No. 2 in C Minor, Op. 12" (first track)

ÄNGLASPEL – Jazz i Sverige '82 (Caprice, 1982)

Instrumental
International relevance: *

Included for relations rather than content. We have Erik Dahlbäck (Fläsket Brinner), Anders Jormin (Dan Berglund, Mwendo Dawa), Stefan Forssén (Narren, Dan Berglund, Maria Hörnelius), Stefan Isaksson (Ibis, Hawkey Franzén) and Ann-Sofie Söderqvist (Thomas Almqvist, Hawkey Franzén). Not as progg-y as one could expect, but more an album of technical post bop. This was their first album but leader Stefan Forssén used the Änglaspel name on several more scattered over the decades.

Full album playlist 

LEIF STRANDS KAMMARKÖR – Complete albums 1969-1982

What's a chamber choir doing here? you might ask. A relevant question for sure, but this isn't just any chamber choir. This lot is far more progressively minded than a whole lot of your standard proggers and the five albums they recorded from the end of the 60s up to the beginning of the 80s have some of the most explorative music of the era.

Leif Strand founded the choir in 1965 while still a student at the Royal Academy of Music in Stockholm which he attended from 1960 to 1970. He acquainted several prominent performers on the jazz field such as renowned pianist Jan Johansson, bassist Georg Riedel and clarinetist/saxophonist Arne Domnérus as well as future progg illuminaries Jan Schaffer and Björn J:son Lindh. These friendships proved crucial to Strand as his recording career took on by the turn of the decade.

En skiva med Leif Strands kammarkör (Proprius, 1969)
Swedish vocals
International relevance: **

The title may be unassuming (=”an album by Leif Strand's chamber choir”) but the music is anything but. Promininently featured are the previously mentioned Riedel and Domnérus along with pianist Bengt Hallberg, conga player Rupert Clementine and Lennart Åberg on soprano sax. Composition credits are split between Riedel and Strand with ”Blowing In The Wind” being the Dylan song in an expansive arrangement signed Jan Johansson (who tragically passed away in a car accident the year before this was recorded). It's not that the jazz elements are just tucked onto the classically styled choral arrangements – the exchange is dynamic and works as a truly cohesive unit that's indeed forward thinking and open-minded. Trad jazzer Arne Domnérus particularly surprises coming out as a true modernist.

This is deeply musical and extensively creative music cut from the same cloth as Carl-Axel and Monica Dominique of Solar Plexus, and it's rather surprising they're not involved on any of these Leif Strand records. They would have been a perfect match.

En skiva till med Leif Strands kammarkör (Proprius, 1970)
Swedish vocals, other languages
International relevance: *

The second album has an equally mundane title (=”another album by Leif Strand's chamber choir”) but a tweaked line-up. The Riedel/Domnérus/Hallberg troyka is intact but augmented by tenorist and flautist Claes Rosendahl, guitarist Rune Gustafsson, and noted Norweigan born drummer and percussionist Egil Johansen. The instrumental assets are unfortunately not sufficiently utilized with the emphasis being on the vocals. Too much to the fore and much too operatic bordering on sprechgesang, they make ”En skiva till” the weakest Strand album for me.The high point is probably 8 minute opener ”Gospel”, a chaotic piece of modernist dissonance and intimidating drama.

Sorgen och glädjen (Proprius, 1971)
Swedish vocals
International relevance: **

The albums here aren't particularly rare (or sought-after), but this is one of the most common. It probably sold better and is a lot more easy-going than the previous album. With many of the songs being traditional material and folk chorals, it's rich with melancholy textures reminiscent of the always popular work of Jan Johansson. Which is not to say it's smoothed out – some parts are certainly moving in weird territories. ”Världens frälsare, kom här” even touches on Oriental scales. It's also the album up to then that most successfully merges the choir and the jazz section. A good entry point for the novice.

Allt under himmelens fäste (Proprius, 1974)
Swedish vocals, English vocals
International relevance: **

Released three years after ”Sorgen och glädjen” (=”the sorrow and the joy”), ”Allt under himmelsens fäste” (=”everything below the firmament of heaven”) follows along the lines of its predecessor but has a stronger emphasis on jazz, occasionally even veering towards post-bop. The traditional “Bergkirstis polska” (arranged by Jan Johansson) almost goes off the deep end entirely!

Visa singer/troubadour Göran Fristorp is a new addition here; the album was released the same year as Fristorp's own album “En luffare är jag” that featured the choir. I'm not too keen on his voice, it's a bit too precious, and his contributions spoil the flow a bit. Still, this is the where to go if you want more after “Sorgen och glädjen”.

 

Missa Pro Pace: En fredsmässa (Europafilm, 1982)
English vocals, other languages
International relevance: ***

A seven year recording hiatus was interrupted in 1981 by a collaborative live album on the dreaded A Disc label, with the Chamber Choir's first proper album in ages appearing the following year. A lot had changed since “Allt under himmelens fäste”. Stahlwarts Riedel, Hallberg et al were gone, substituted by the likes of J:son Lindh, Schaffer, Stefan Brolund and Jan Bandel. The personnel change obviously updated the sound and style, and “Missa Pro Pace” (“a peace mass”) is the most overtly proggish album in this lot. Some sections almost sounds like a light version of French band Magma! It's also the first album to utilize other effects than the natural reverb of the recording location. It's the first Chamber Choir album that sounds produced. “Credo” for instance has space echo flute whereas Schaffer's reverb-laiden guitar in “Agnus Dei” isn't that far removed from Terje Rypdal. Most surprising feature though is the electric sitar and tablas in “Gloria” – I didn't see that one coming!

Once you've gotten used to this being a very different album from what you've come to expect, it's actually rather good. Thinking of it, this might be the best first choice to a lot of people coming from progg even if it's not quite in line with Leif Strand's 'original' chamber choir. Then again, it's as free-spirited as any of their work, and that is after all the most striking and important trait of this decidedly imaginative and largely captivating choir.

En skiva full album playlist
En skiva till full album playlist 
Sorgen och glädjen full album playlist
Allt under himmelens fäste full album playlist
Missa Pro Pace: En fredsmässa

PUTTE WICKMAN – Happy New Year! (Odeon, 1973)

Instrumental
International relevance: **

Putte Wickman was a technically skilled clarinet player but best known for swing and flatulent bop jazz – a traditionalist not known for forward thinking. So ”Happy New Year!” isn't an album you'd easily associate with him. True that about half of it is dull and close to what you might expect from him, but the remainder is of a more contemporary design. It's actually pretty open-minded even for fusion jazz. The title track is straight-up funky and the undisputed highlight of the album. Free thinker Bobo Stenson appears on electric piano on some cuts, while piano giant Staffan Abeleen appears on the remaining tracks.

While not an essential disc, it's still interesting to hear Wickman had more to offer than just stale musealia.

Full album playlist

BENGT-ARNE WALLIN – Varmluft (Sonet, 1972)

Swedish vocals, instrumental
International relevance: **

Bengt-Arne Wallin is surrounded by an interesting lot of performers on ”Varmluft”. Apart from the internationally renowned swing and bebop trumpeter Clark Terry, there's a number of domestic dignitaries here including Marie Selander, Lennart Åberg (of Rena Rama), Georg Riedel, Sabu Martinez, Anthony Reebop Kwaku Bah and Maffy Falay. And as always, Janne Schaffer. The music could be called progressive big band, but that doesn't quite say much about its variety. There are low-key, moody moments, funky sections, folksy moments – there's a little bit of everything working together as a kaleidoscopic whole. Wallin sometimes wanted too much at once which is the problem with for instance ”Wallin/Wallin”, but ”Varmluft” is a bit better sorted out. Not everything here is successful, but some of it is. And I do appreciate his approach even when it doesn't work out completely. He was a visionary and it's always heartwarming delving into a visionary's work.

The cover art is made by Lasse Åberg.

No links found 

MICHAEL, SALT & PEPPER – Live At Alexandra's (Blueberry, 1970) / THE BLOOM GREEN GROUP – Discoteque (Haparanda, 1971)

 English vocals, instrumental
International relevance: **

A largely insignificant group sounding a bit like a power horn rock version of Made In Sweden. Their first album was recorded live and is pretty vital if unnecessary consisting of all covers such as ”By The Time I Get To Phoenix”, ”Eleanor Rigby”, and a ”Hair” medley of ”Aquarius” and ”Let The Sunshine In”. I have to say though that their take on ”Try (Just A Little Bit Harder” is pretty powerful with some stinging solo guitar.

They re-emerged the following year under the moniker The Bloom Green Group, with some tracks from their debuted re-recorded in studio. The Made In Sweden vibe is stronger here, largely due to what might be Mats Westman from the first album – the album cover has no musicians listed. It does however have a massively cheap looking front that was changed for the digital reissue.

The group also had two 45s out and undertook a Mexican tour in 1971.

Live At Alexandra's full album playlist
Discoteque full album playlist

COMMUNICATION – Communication (Grammofonverket, 1974)

 Instrumental, English vocals, wordless vocals
International relevance: *

Featured in the also-rans list in Tobias Peterson's Swedish progg encyclopedia, but really too un-progg to conveniently fit here. Bassist Red Mitchell is at the helm of this constellation, and he rarely went for very adventurous sounds. Communication briefly touches on soul jazz in ”Cirrus” and give a nod to Coltrane in ”Pamukkale”, but apart from that, this is mainly standard jazz. Well executed but not very interesting.

The album was reissued on CD in 2015 as a Red Mitchell album with a new cover art.

Full album playlist (Spotify)

SJÖN SUGER – Complete albums 1974-1978

I kustbandet (Polydor, 1974)

Sjön Suger (Strike Of Sweden, 1976)

Värre än vanligt (Strike Of Sweden, 1977)

Fina fisken (Marianne, 1978)

Swedish vocals, English vocals, instrumental

International relevance: -

Mentioned in the "100 other artists to listen to" in ”The Encyclopedia Of Swedish Progressive Music”. Similar in style to Grus I Dojjan but better playing. Cheerful roots music, tongue-in-cheek trad jazz and interwar period goodtime songs with ”humourous” lyrics. There's no need to distinguish the albums, they all sound the same and they're all bad.

I kustbandet no links found
Sjön Suger full album playlist
Värre än vanligt full album playlist
Fina fisken full album playlist

VARIOUS ARTISTS – Vad gör egentligen algerna på vintern? (Scam, 1974)

Featured artists: Stamp Från Kön / Di Sma Under Jårdi / Jan Ekedahl / Anders Peedu / Smaklösa / Olle Karlsson / Gotlands Jazzband / Pax Teatern / Gotlands Teater / Folklynnet / Ramlösa Cykelklubb / Peter Jankert / Lejonklösa / Unknown artist / Tranz
Swedish vocals, English vocals, instrumental
International relevance: *

A serious contender for strangest album title: ”What do algae actually do in the winter?”. The music within won't answer the question, it actually raises more questions, like ”Why does this album even exist?”. I assume it's an attempt to present the early 70s Gotland scene – Gotland being Sweden's biggest island well known for its unusual rock formations called rauks (and also the home of the godlike Cement).

The Scam label have an obvious place in progg history, having released 45s by acts such as Great Ad, Raunchy and 4 Ever, not to mention Solid Ground's sole album ”Made In Rock”. Although I'm not a fan of ”Made In Rock”, such a release schedule nevertheless raises the expectations a few notches. But almost the entire LP consists of various acoustic acts, several of them aspiring to comedy which isn't funny. A couple of them became rather famous years later, most notably Smaklösa and Di Sma Under Jårdi with the latter scoring a major hit with the appalling ”Snabbköpskassörskan” in 1985. Anders Peedu in turn had been in 60s freak rock band Friends who released a number of garage rock fuelled 45s of now legendary status. However, his contribution ”Rallarvisa” shows no traces of his noisy, ramshackle past – it's a traditional navvy song.

Everything on this album is bad with one striking exception. After sitting through terrible stabs at moronic humour, bad versions of trad songs, limp trad jazz and what might be the worst Bob Dylan cover ever recorded, the whole things goes out with a bang. ”Gamarnas sång” by Tranz is a riff heavy hard rock track mangling away for 7 minutes. If the vocals leave a bit to be desired, then the guitars fully make up for it. Thankfully, the track was salvaged from obscurity when it was included on the second volume of the marvellous ”Swedish Meathballs” comp in 2022, rendering ”Vad gör egentligen algerna på vintern” completely redundant.

Tranz - Gamarnas dans

LEE SCHIPPER – Phunky Physicist (CAM, 1975)

Instrumental
International relevance: **

Now here are some peculiar turn of events! Lee Schipper was an American physicist specializing in energy efficency research and considered something of a pioneer on climate issues. He was also a vibraphonist and recorded an album in 1973 with Swedish musicians Stefan Brolund, Ola Brunkert, Christer Eklund, and thick-as-thieves couple Schaffer & J:son, plus Americans Art Lande on piano and Ted Curson on trumpet, and produced by Swedish big band leader Lasse Samuelsson. The album, appropriately entitled ”Phunky Physicist” was originally only released on Italian library music label CAM in 1975 before eventually getting a Swedish reissue on Four Leaf Clover two years later with new title ”Jazz Meeting 1”. Later yet it appeared as a digital release expanded with two bonus tracks, one with the eyebrow raising title ”LSD Takes A Holiday”.

I'm not a fan of the vibraphone; it's too close in sound to steel pans and there's something about it that makes me restless. A personal thing for sure, but even without the vibraphone, the album isn't too thrilling. It's all very competent but also very dutiful, going through the motions without much excitement. It leans towards fusion jazz but without becoming a fully fledged fusion album of the most formulaic kind. The track ”Still Life” moves in a silent way (if you get the drift) and is one of the best ones on the album. Apart from that, it's Jan Schaffer who gets to shine the most here, going crazy in opening number ”Phunky Physicist” and ”Harvest Machine” (also found on Schaffer's debut LP in a tamer version). ”LSD Takes A Holiday” is unfortunately not as strange as the title might lead you to believe.

So the album has some OK moments, but the somewhat odd story behind it is much more interesting than the album itself.

Full album playlist with bonus tracks